It takes a lot of organization and at the moment I have a weird, but doable schedule. I'm in school 9-6 (Mon), 8-2 (Tue), off (Wed), 11-5 (Thu), and 10-4 (Fri). So I usually work our on Tues afternoon, Wed morning, Thur before school and sometimes during a break on Thurs I double up the workouts. Then I make up what I've missed on the weekends (workout wise). Of course with school, comes homework, which usually sucks up my weeknights and sometimes my days off as well.

I've become really good at multi-tasking. Right now I'm doing laundry, watching a recorded version of L&O SVU and doing laundry. For the food I do a lot of cooking/freezing and separating/freezing.

To give an example, a month or so ago I made a batch of curry/tomato sauce. I divided it and froze it. I also buy chicken thighs in bulk from Costco or when on sale. I freeze them on a tray, then bag them up and and mark the weight on the bag. So tonight I took the frozen chicken thighs and dropped them into a glass dish and put the frozen sauce on top of it and put it in the fridge. Tomorrow when I get home I'll just cook it for 45 mins, adding some veg and/or rice to it to make a full meal.

(for anyone interested - picture and recipe here of completed dish)
http://realcdn-recipes.blogspot.com/...th-tomato.html

So last weekend I made soup (21 lunch servings) on a Saturday morning. The weekend before I made beef stew (made 10 servings for 2). So eventually you get a lot of options and can make (or get ready) dinners easily. Tonight's meal was meat sauce (from the freezer) with pasta and again, a side of vegetables. I couldn't do this without doing that. Having known meals/meats in the freezer makes planning my meals the next day quick and easy. If that's not bad enough I bake/freeze as well. Tomorrows meal plan will include a blueberry bran snack cake (high protein) and cracked wheat oatmeal bread. This weekend I'll likely take some time (while doing homework) and bake bread (as I'm down to 1 loaf).

Honestly, some days, I'm not sure how I manage. This week has been tough as I had a test last night that kept me at school until almost 7pm (and have another one coming up next week).

My strength training runs about 70-75mins (3 times a week) and has lots of rest periods in it. Maybe about 20-25mins of actual exercise. The weights are heavy though. ;) For cardio, I walk. Sometimes I jog for a min, walk for a number of mins, jog for a min, etc. I usually do either 2x30 mins sessions or 1-45 min one (total 2 hours a week).

Having said all that, I truly believe that my weight loss comes from my food intake, not my exercise. My exercise allows me to eat more on some days (ie. today I added 300 cals, and burned a little over 400 during my workout). It will help me be more fit and strong as I lose weight. But my weight loss comes from the kitchen.

Thanks for the recipee blog link!!! I may have my grocery list for this weekend now!!:)

Oh, and as if I wasn't nuts to start with ...

We have a long weekend coming up (Canadian Thanksgiving) and I'll be brining and smoking a turkey which I'll slice up and use for lunch meat as well. :dizzy:

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement. I so needed them today. I feel really good about just being patient. I was walking tonight and I went to scratch my back and I could reach my shoulder blade on the same side and I felt bone. I was so excited, it's a big deal. :)